Is it safe to overclock my cpu?

Earlier this month I read every Intel Core i7 technical review I could find because I was getting read for a new build. I discovered the Intel Core i7 920 cpu is well suited for overclocking. The sweet spot is 3.3 to 3.6Ghz with sufficient cooling. The cpu has actually been pushed to 4.2Ghz on air cooling and 5.2Ghz on Liquid Nitrogen.

An Intel engineer inadvertantly mentioned the maximum operating temperature of the Intel Core i7 920 is 100C. Intel officially specifies a maximum operating temperature of 80C. It is a safety measure. When overclocking use a temperature monitoring utility like Conumdrum mentioned to keep an eye on temperature during overclocking.

I see that you have a Coolermaster Hyper N520 cpu heatsink and Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. That's good; however, I have a suggestion. Arctic Silver 5 is an older thermal compound. It's performance has been surpassed by newer compounds. For a few dollars you could probably drop temps a couple of degrees. The problem is trying to decide which one to use. When I did my research I discovered there were over 80 assorted compounds, pastes, liquids, and metal alloys. It gets kind of crazy because of the sheer number and the varying results.